Ham: Airstrikes have 'given pause' to ISIL

By NICK GASS

08/10/2014 10:17 AM EDT

Retired Gen. Carter Ham says U.S. airstrikes on Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant targets have had a positive effect on the situation but that without ground forces, it will be harder for the U.S. to achieve its long-term goals.

"I think the initial strikes are already having some effect," Ham said Sunday on ABC's "This Week." "It appears to have at least given pause to the Islamic extremists" on their advance toward Irbil and other cities.

"It remains to be seen how much support the United States is ready to provide, in my view, first to the Kurdish regional government in Iraq and their armed forces, the peshmerga, but longer term to help, hopefully, a new Iraq government rebuild the Iraqi military," he said.

Ham also noted the role of the Iraqi government in stabilizing the country.

"I think [President Barack Obama] is right. There has got to be a responsible government in Baghdad to which a future Iraqi army can be loyal," Ham said.

Appearing on the same show, Christopher Hill, a former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, said the idea that some rebels can be armed but not others is troublesome. He also called attention to diplomatic and political shortcomings on Syria.

Hill said there has been a failure to come up with a diplomatic or political way forward in Syria. “[A]fter all, if Bashar al-Assad were hit by a bus today, there would still be a problem in Syria, because no one knows what the country will look like in the future,” he said.